A drive-by happens when you use your web browser
or an email link
to visit a website and it unexpectedly infects you with Malware.

Recently this has been occurring from trusted sources including
Unicef, Whitepages, Yellowpages, Whereis
(And other Sensis Websites). These companies used an external source for
adverts on their various pages. The advertisements them selves, contained
the Malware. Drive-by's
could herald the death of 'trusted' Web sites and this is a great cause for
concern.

Essentially a Drive-By is
any download that happens without knowledge of the user.

It is the Download of
Spyware, a
computer virus or any kind of
Malware that happens without knowledge of the user.
Drive-by downloads may happen by visiting a
website, viewing an e-mail message or by clicking on a
deceptive popup window: the user clicks on the window in the
mistaken belief that, for instance, it is an error report
from his own PC or that it is an innocuous advertisement
popup; in such cases, the "supplier" may claim that the user
"consented" to the download though he was completely unaware
of having initiated a malicious software download.

Download of Malware through exploitation of a
web browser,
e-mail client or
operating system bug, without any user intervention
whatsoever.

Drive-by's are on the increase!

Did you know that the number of poisoned web sites is increasing. 1 in 1000
web pages are infected with malicious drive-by downloads

Are your sure some
obfuscated piece of
Malware isn't
lurking on your workstation or web server? Are you sure your hosting service
(Your Internet provider) hasn't been
compromised?

How can we stop these things ?

Because you are
deemed to have requested these files, firewalls simply let the contents
through. As the majority of these things are Rootkits (Malware that
are stealthy and hidden from the computer system), antivirus programs don't
see them or are not designed to handle the detection of them. Traditional
Antivirus tools are not stopping these nasties. Spyware and Malware removers
are finding them after they have been installed but by then, often the
damage is done.

Your best course
of action is to seek technical advice as soon as you believe your PC is
behaving weirdly. If your internet explorer crashes on one specific website,
you have an increase in spam or your system simply becomes unreliable, seek
advice.

There are some
rating tools out there that trawl the websites available and rate the risks
associated with it. The Trend micro, Symantec, McAfee and AVG products do
this for home users and there are solutions available for Corporate and
business users.

The best
procedure to prevent these attacks is good surfing habits and stick to work
related or safe websites. With the safe websites, don't trust them. They are
less likely to infect you however be on your guard.

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